""But things do tend to get a bit out of hand. I particularly loved the guy (who gets my Vicar of Bray of the week award, BTW) who then made a long post about the B-thing, then congratulated a couple of others for saying we shouldn't post about politics/the B-thing, and then went on to post, at least twice, about the B-thing! Bravo on a masterly use of bandwidth there!""

Hi Edwardian.
Not sure who you are refering to, but for my part, I too did not want to "fan the flames". So I never once said if I was pro or anti "B-thing".
My post after yours merely tried to move the topic along, from the focus of being about said "b-thing", to it being a supply disruption which was a global issue, even citing climate trouble within a certain sector & of course covid still affecting us. We are living in strange times these days.

I did congratulate people on trying to take the heat out of the situation. I finished with making a point saying there were those that were pro or anti in many nations in Europe, so thus perhaps then not a good idea to single out an entire nation as a whole....say.....France for example, & thus not attract the ire of others, causing tempers to flare. That was my only reason for mentioning the topic again.

I was trying to diffuse things, using a calm, neutral & balanced approach to the discussion. Being diplomatic is far better than to have an itchy trigger finger is it not?!! If it came across as someone trying to be a "Vicar of Bray" character, that was not the intention. I certainly had no position that I was desperately hanging on to, unlike the character in that story!!!!

By the way, with what has happened in this thread, it may be better to not mention "waters" & "fish"!!!!! 😉😂😂

Fair enough. I wasn't trying to be for or against either, and, like you, was trying to move things along and away. We, and I think here of the UK and Europe, face a lot of challenges, some unforeseen, such as the as the pandemic. Changes such as the B-thing can add a layer of complexity and difficulty, though occasionally they can streamline a solution. But these issues have so many moving parts, it's ultimately hard to judge effect and almost impossible to construct a sensible counter-factual scenario for comparison. What am I saying? Well, apart from supporting the consensus that no good can come of debating such inappropriate matters, I doubt any reliable conclusions can be reached about the effect of something one may, or may not, support!